About 3 weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a parish a few miles away from where I live. They said there was a wedding planned for a Monday afternoon and they were quite desperate to find an organist. Most organists here have other jobs during the week and play the organ as a hobby or small side job and can't do anything on a week day.
So I had a look in my calendar, found that the afternoon was still free and said that I would do it. I know the church and the organ (small one manual Bosch organ built in 1966, in a very small village church) and getting there takes just 20 minutes by bicycle. So not too much hassle.
Or so I thought.
One week before the wedding, I came home from organ practise and my husband said, a lady had called and it was probably about the wedding. Turns out the lady was the bride - the couple was actually celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary (civil ceremony) and now had decided they also wanted the church ceremony, too. She said they had chosen two hymns (fairly standard) and they wanted a prelude and a postlude but had no special requests for this. And then she said, there's a young lady, my daughter's friend, who would like to sing two songs. Could I accompany her? I said, well, get me the sheet music and I'll do it.
On the next day, there was an e-mail without subject line and I almost put it directly in the trash folder, but it turned out to be from that young singer. She wrote: I don't have the sheet music, can you get it yourself? I wrote back, well, no, I won't. But the bride had told me that you play the piano and I can bring a piano to church for you (of course this would've meant taking the car instead of the bicycle). I didn't hear back from her.
Two days later, I received an e-mail from the pastor saying that there would be one song by a soloist. I said, ah, interesting, and gave this information to the bride, and also told her that the singer hadn't answered yet.
On the same day, the pastor wrote again and said, no, there will be two songs by the soloist.
The next day there was another e-mail from the singer: she would bring the sheet music on Monday, could I please play.
I said, okay, but please be at the church half an hour before the ceremony so that we can do a quick run-through.
On Monday, I was at church 45 minutes before the ceremony.
The singer arrived 25 minutes before. Without the sheet music! Apparently she had printed it but it had disappeared. Wasn't there a printer in church? (No, of course not). So she went to a friend's house to get the sheet music. Came back 15 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. Only to find that two pages of one of the songs were missing...
We ended up doing one of her songs (it went well enough) and I played an additional organ solo, and we had two hymns for the congregation and a nice prelude and postlude and everyone was happy.
So I had a look in my calendar, found that the afternoon was still free and said that I would do it. I know the church and the organ (small one manual Bosch organ built in 1966, in a very small village church) and getting there takes just 20 minutes by bicycle. So not too much hassle.
Or so I thought.
One week before the wedding, I came home from organ practise and my husband said, a lady had called and it was probably about the wedding. Turns out the lady was the bride - the couple was actually celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary (civil ceremony) and now had decided they also wanted the church ceremony, too. She said they had chosen two hymns (fairly standard) and they wanted a prelude and a postlude but had no special requests for this. And then she said, there's a young lady, my daughter's friend, who would like to sing two songs. Could I accompany her? I said, well, get me the sheet music and I'll do it.
On the next day, there was an e-mail without subject line and I almost put it directly in the trash folder, but it turned out to be from that young singer. She wrote: I don't have the sheet music, can you get it yourself? I wrote back, well, no, I won't. But the bride had told me that you play the piano and I can bring a piano to church for you (of course this would've meant taking the car instead of the bicycle). I didn't hear back from her.
Two days later, I received an e-mail from the pastor saying that there would be one song by a soloist. I said, ah, interesting, and gave this information to the bride, and also told her that the singer hadn't answered yet.
On the same day, the pastor wrote again and said, no, there will be two songs by the soloist.
The next day there was another e-mail from the singer: she would bring the sheet music on Monday, could I please play.
I said, okay, but please be at the church half an hour before the ceremony so that we can do a quick run-through.
On Monday, I was at church 45 minutes before the ceremony.
The singer arrived 25 minutes before. Without the sheet music! Apparently she had printed it but it had disappeared. Wasn't there a printer in church? (No, of course not). So she went to a friend's house to get the sheet music. Came back 15 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. Only to find that two pages of one of the songs were missing...
We ended up doing one of her songs (it went well enough) and I played an additional organ solo, and we had two hymns for the congregation and a nice prelude and postlude and everyone was happy.
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